Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Now that you’ve completed the arduous task of reading the
headline and doubtlessly have strong and emotional opinions tied to
today’s topic, please take a step back and a deep breath.

The ongoing argument over food wrappers at Conflict Kitchen’s
Palestinian incarnation is, to be charitable, egregiously stupid and
infantile.

Food is the most fundamental and basic aspect of any culture.
Since 2010, Conflict Kitchen has offered Pittsburghers the chance to
sample cuisine native to places that typically wind up on the less
favorable end of American foreign policy. By doing this, it does justice
to the residents of these places — it humanizes the conflict.

The restaurant has featured food from unstable, perpetual war
zones, like Afghanistan, to places with whose leadership our country
fundamentally disagrees, like Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. It’s
undeniable that politics become a prominent part of the conversation
should one delve any deeper into these conflicts, but that’s not what
Conflict Kitchen is about. It’s about helping people over here realize that
people over there are and have always been actual people. It’s about
encouraging us to appeal to the very nature of our humanity and find some
empathy, whether we ultimately agree or not.

That a food stand nearly 10,000 miles away can’t sell a damn
falafel without B’nai Brith taking it as a personal affront from the Heinz
Endowments shows how deeply this particular conflict runs, but it also demonstrates
what makes having an ongoing, honest and civil discussion about these affairs
so important — a discussion that can’t happen when discourse devolves to
name-calling and death threats, and that won’t happen when the mere
mention of said conflict spurs people on opposing sides of it to the
thoroughly disgusting arguments and behaviors we’ve seen since this non-issue
became an issue.

To characterize Conflict Kitchen's serving of Palestinian food
wrapped in Palestinian opinions as anti-Israel is every bit as facile as
arguing that their featuring of North Korean or Afghan cuisine constitute the
tacit endorsement of Kim Jong Un or the Taliban. One might as well take it
a step further and claim that because Conflict Kitchen only serves food
from these places, it is serving as an anti-American splinter cell, here to
subvert our citizenry one lunch at a time. No reasonable person
could possibly think this.

Pittsburgh is in the midst of a Golden Age. There are truly
remarkable people here doing wonderful things. Our track of progressive
and community-oriented forward thought has garnered us a ton of positive
attention the last five years, but more importantly, it’s made this an entirely
pleasant place to live.

In addition to our art, music and food scenes, we have
well-organized forums for discourse on these exact issues, including the
World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, Global Solutions Pittsburgh and
the American Middle East Institute, not to mention your school, your
social circles or your own goddamn dinner table, where you can wrap your
falafel in whatever literature pleases you.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Exciting week, lots of great action out there. Needless to say, there are going to be a lot of moves between now and Friday, when Netflix turns over several dozen big titles and brings in a new batch. Never fear. FTC is here to guide you through all the good stuff.

Zodiac

This 2007 period thriller by David Fincher (Fight Club, Gone Girl) is an under the radar hit. Sure, it clocks in at two and a half hours, but it's sexy, scary and completely episodic-- so taking an intermission is no problem. And compared to Se7en, this movie is a breeze. I dare say Fincher started his career with worlds that were a bit too dark and impenetrable; he doesn't have that problem here. Also: h/t for shooting on a digital camera and making it look good, Dave! Watch this movie, people. It's pretty good!

The Twilight Zone

Seasons 1, 2, 3, and 5 are on Netflix. This is a win for you, a win for me, and a win for everyone in the free world with a decent bandwidth. Watch this series and try to remember what was going on in the world when it was made. It is your bridge from surrealism to post modernism, and don't you forget it.

The West Wing

I would find this show compelling if it wasn't so artistically bankrupt.

American Horror Story

I'm pretty great at not watching TV that isn't Cheers, Seinfeld, Twin Peaks and Star Trek (TNG and DS9). So when I succumb to a guilty pleasure like this, you've gotta think it's pretty delicious. Without spoiling too much, American Horror Story is a convoluted piling on of ghost tale cliches, hidden under the heavy garnishes of violence, sex, profanity, infanticide, school shootings, and unfiltered abuse of someone with Down's Syndrome. At first, all that is liberating and great, but then you realize how low this art actually is. I think about how David Chase ripped apart the sphincters of television morality, but man, The Sopranos is a statement on par with Eugene O'Neill's better work. American Horror Story is not that. And as far as being freaky, it is maybe a little creepier than Twin Peaks, but only because it's unrelenting with the blades and burns and monster babies.

MacGyver

It's on Netflix!! You know what to do!

Kingpin

Coming November 7th! Finally, you'll have something to be grateful for when asked.